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Hey Jerusalem, you reading Starman or are you gonna need a reroll?
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Jan 24, 2018 06:06
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Lick! The! Whisk! posted:Hey Jerusalem, you reading Starman or are you gonna need a reroll? I'm reading it, will try and get something written up for the first storyline/trade in the next few days.
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Jan 24, 2018 06:37
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Got it, ill put you on the waiting list then.
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Jan 24, 2018 07:01
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I’m really excited to read that. I own all the Starman Omnibuses, but when I tried to read the comic (in the late 00s) I found it pretty dated and a little too wordy. But I am a more mature boy now and maybe I will pick em up next time I visit my parents.
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Jan 24, 2018 13:20
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You can tell Starman is written by an old British man because he thinks Chris Isaak is cool.
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Jan 24, 2018 15:05
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Thank god it's over. Part 2 of 2, and I need a drink and a break from this darn roulette.
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Jan 25, 2018 05:40
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That final score is wonderful. Also where the hell did that "worshiper of Godless science!" angry insult from the Evil Pope come from? At no point in the story that I could see does Kurt say, or anybody say about Kurt,"By the way, Kurt loves science instead of God now."
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Jan 25, 2018 06:52
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I was sick, so that's why I haven't posted yet. I just started both Inhumans and Spider-Man Reign, so expect my reviews during the week.
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Jan 28, 2018 21:50
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I am a true glutton for punishment. So far I've reviewed the lowest ranked story on the list (at least ATM), BUT WHY STOP THERE? I'm back in. Roll me something from 657 to 676 on the new list. My one request is I cannot do 671: Countdown To Final Crisis. Breaking down 1 to 6 comics is doable. Breaking down 52 of them is beyond me in a month.
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Jan 29, 2018 03:50
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I finally managed to read through Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures and good God did I not enjoy that. The art is some of the worst Brett Booth art I've ever seen, and holy poo poo is that saying a lot.   (I had to look up some scans online for this, and they seem to be old ones too. The print editions aren't much better looking though.) This is just from the first few pages, and there's just something so off about the coloring that makes Booth's art even more unflattering to look at. I have no idea what the books read like, and I never heard of it before this, so I can't judge how it works as an adaptation. I finished this book feeling like the source material is probably just as trashy as the comic adaptation. Which is why, what Anita Blake really needs is to embrace the garbage schlock and get a CW adaptation.  It's perfect for CW. Also Fang-Face is an excellent insult for a vampire. Unfortunately, it felt like this adaptation just did not want to be silly often enough for me. Overall, really not worth checking out. Definitely deserves suck a low ranking.
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Jan 29, 2018 05:24
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Cornwind Evil posted:I'm back in. Roll me something from 657 to 676 on the new list. My one request is I cannot do 671: Countdown To Final Crisis. Breaking down 1 to 6 comics is doable. Breaking down 52 of them is beyond me in a month.
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Jan 29, 2018 06:20
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He was great in American Crime Story, but yeah, after Friends ended I guess he had to take whatever gigs he could get.
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Jan 29, 2018 07:30
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Edge & Christian posted:I tried to do that weekly and it broke me.
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Jan 29, 2018 07:33
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CapnAndy posted:Did literally anyone who set out to review Countdown weekly make it to the end? I think it broke everyone. I bet Hannibal Tabu did and put it in the "MEH" pile more often than not since there wasn't enough hot women in it.
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Jan 29, 2018 14:28
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Endless Mike posted:I bet Hannibal Tabu did and put it in the "MEH" pile more often than not since there wasn't enough hot women in it. Guess that depends on your definition of 'women'. (mildly NSFW)
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Jan 29, 2018 18:08
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Cornwind Evil posted:I am a true glutton for punishment. So far I've reviewed the lowest ranked story on the list (at least ATM), BUT WHY STOP THERE? I assumed you meant to 679. Regardless, you got a number between 657 and 676 anyways, if you only meant that.  You get 658. Kick-rear end. Hoor...ayy...... Roth posted:I finally managed to read through Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures and good God did I not enjoy that. This is your review, yes? Just wanted to make sure so I'd link it in the OP
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Jan 29, 2018 18:15
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Yeah. I didn't have a whole lot to say on that one.
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Jan 29, 2018 19:13
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Question: Is that the first series or the WHOLE series (ie 1, 2, 3, and the spin off)?
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Jan 29, 2018 19:36
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I was mostly commenting on him doing convention panel reports and making sure to comment on how hot the cosplayer ladies asking questions were.
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Jan 29, 2018 20:34
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Cornwind Evil posted:Question: Is that the first series or the WHOLE series (ie 1, 2, 3, and the spin off)? just 1.
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Jan 29, 2018 20:58
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Roth posted:Which is why, what Anita Blake really needs is to embrace the garbage schlock and get a CW adaptation. By all accounts the book series quickly descends into especially skeevy pornography so Cinemax is probably the better network for an Anita Blake show.
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Jan 30, 2018 00:16
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Random Stranger posted:By all accounts the book series quickly descends into especially skeevy pornography so Cinemax is probably the better network for an Anita Blake show. I've actually read most of the books, she's a huge prude in the first three because the only man she ever slept with was her fiance who dumped her because his family was racist (she's half Mexican) then she has a normal amount of sex for someone who is a vampire killer and also dates a werewolf and a vampire on and off, but by book seven she's loving a were leopard she met ten minutes ago for political reasons. Her best friend is also a sociopath
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Jan 30, 2018 00:34
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Lick! The! Whisk! posted:Nope! Instead, you got 112. Starman (Robinson/Harris). That's, uh, volume 2, and its also 80 loving issues long, so it's probably on the whole the single longest run of comics to read on the list. So what do I know about Starman? Not much at all, really. I know that in the 1990s, there was a book called Starman. I know that it was some sort of follow-up to an earlier iteration of that comic, and that it was highly regarded at its time of publication. How do I know this? Because at the time I was reading (mostly) Marvel comics and the odd DC or Vertigo book, but I would regularly read articles about this quiet overachiever of a comic - something smart and well written and lauded... but I never saw it in any comic store, and this predated the explosion in graphic novels/TPBs (in my circles, anyway) so I can only assume that it was a series that got by on word of mouth and subscriptions. I know that after a good, long run the comic ended. Not in cancellation or declining readership from a change of creators, but because the writer decided to bring things to a natural close. I know the ending was similarly lauded, a bow on the story that left everybody feeling satisfied. But who Starman was, what his powers were, the enemies he faced, the triumphs and tragedies that unfolded for him etc? I knew none of that. So now, having read the first few issues, completed the first major story-arc and getting into the run proper, what do I know? Not much at all, really.  In the 1940s, Starman was a Playboy/Scientist named Ted Knight, who lived and adventured in Gotham City and was a member of the Justice Society of America. The inventor of a "Gravity Rod" that allowed him to fly and manipulate energy, he basically sounds like a kind of generic every-hero with the basic traits of "rich, secret-identity, genius, can fly, has a crazy dame for a girlfriend etc". The title was borrowed at various time over the years for other characters, notably a Roger Stern written series that ran through the late 80s into the early 90s for about 40 issues. During this time, the now retired Ted Knight - belatedly aged up and his base of operations retconned into Opal City - passed on his title and costume to his eldest son David, who doted on his father and worshiped the notion of Starman. Issue #0 of Starman Volume 2 opens with David beaming with pride and joy as he stands atop the tallest building in HIS city and takes in the sight: a gleaming metropolis made safe by his father and now himself. David has achieved his greatest dream, he is everything he ever wanted to be, life is good.  Welp. This is what kicks off the initial drama of this storyline and introduces the reader to Ted Knight's OTHER son: Jack, the owner of a antiques/collectibles store who has zero interest in his father's legacy and basically thinks the whole thing is kind of silly. He has his own life, his own identity, his own priorities to pursue. But he can't escape the gravity of his father's past, anymore than David could or Ted himself. Opal City is a shining example of the power of one man to make things better, and Ted's oldest enemy intends to undo all of that. Known as The Mist, the wheezing, cadaverous monster has spent years waiting for the right moment to strike, to tear down everything that Ted Knight has built up. He will kill his sons, turn the city into a crime-ridden hell-hole, destroy the memory of Ted's late wife and leave Ted to face the fact that his whole life's work was for nothing and meant nothing. It's a deeply personal and malicious scheme, and even with no prior knowledge of the characters it is extremely effective at demonstrating just what a monster The Mist is, as well as how deep and twisted his relationship with his nemesis must have been. The two are obvious mirrors of each other, The Mist even has two children himself who parallel David and Jack - one takes part under protest, the other is an eager disciple, but neither can escape the pull of their father. It is the strongest element of this introductory story: the ties that bind and the burden of duty and, yes, even love. Which is good, because the pacing, the writing, the art and the characterization all actually leave a lot to be desired afterwards. Don't get me wrong, James Robinson is a very good writer (The Golden Age is particularly good) and I've always been a fan of Tony Harris' art, but this is very much a product of its time. The 90s saw an explosion of writer-driven comics, many of which stand up as strong today as when they were first published. But there were a lot of stumbling blocks on the way to the finely tuned machine that exists today, and the same creative challenges and willingness to explore and try new things saw as many missteps as triumphs. In that sense, Starman at least in these early issues feels like HBO's Oz: When that show came along it was something entirely new and different and blew people away, but by comparison even to the likes of The Sopranos it now feels archaic, let alone shows like Breaking Bad, Fargo, Better Call Saul etc. The writing feels rushed in parts, trying to cram too much action and events into too few issues. In issue 0 alone we get David's death; flashbacks to the sons' fractured relationship with each other; David's estranged relationship with his father; David's quirky neighbors and shop; A MYSTERIOUS FORTUNE TELLER; Jack learning about David's death; the arson of Ted's home; Jack's first fight with a villain; the reveal of Jack's "martial" training; the villain getting hold of one of Ted's secret weapons; the destruction of Jack's shop; Jack's first use of the Gravity Rod; the reveal of The Mist; and Jack's existential crisis at his complete inability as a superhero. Sure a lot of things happen in any one regular comic book issue, but every issue of this story-arc is similarly packed with major events, conversations, arguments, revelations etc and the pacing is just far too rushed. People come to startling life-altering conclusions within a few panels of first wrestling with some particular problem. There is no time to breathe, the characters have to remind themselves they're supposed to be in mourning and it's never quite clear whether an hour, a day or a week has passed because just when it feels like 15 major events have transpired, a bit of dialogue makes it seem like it has only been an hour since we saw David getting shot up on that building. I have no doubt that once he has a chance to settle in, Robinson will give stuff more time to breathe - but had I been reading this series as it came out I can easily imagine being turned off by the pacing and dropping the comic until months of good press maybe convinced me to give it another go. Similarly, the art is hindered by the inking of Wade Von Grawbadger. This is quite clearly a personal preference thing, because Grawbadger is highly regarded as an inker and around the time he was working on this comic he was winning awards for his work on it. But to me it's too dark, the lines too thick, the quality of Harris' work (which I always enjoy) lost to the too-thick lines and heavy blacks. Perhaps it's just a result of the print quality at the time not being the best, but whether on Comixology or the google searched images I used for this write-up, everything has a nasty angular quality that detracts from the art and removes any sense of subtlety. Especially if you look at the composition and framing, which is very strong beneath the heavy blacks and thick lines. With luck it and the writing will improve as time goes on, because a comic written by James Robinson and drawn by Tony Harris should NOT feel overly compressed and messily drawn.  There is a lot of world-building going on, with Robinson clearly confident (or at least highly optimistic) that the series was going to run for some time. He sets up many things and makes direct reference to plenty of events/people/favors/grudges etc that all suggest that Jack Knight simply lives in an ongoing, breathing world that has existed a long time before him, will after him, and that plenty of stuff goes on when he isn't around. The most intriguing is the character Shade, an ageless villain who used to clash with Ted Knight who instead chooses to assist the "good guys" when The Mist strikes. There is a very good sense that he is neither hero nor villain, but more mildly bored and willing to hear all sides out before deciding what benefits him most. His casual conversation with The Mist is the first sign that something isn't quite right with that villain, and marks the point where he too decides it would be best to shut him down in as gentle a way as possible rather than let him continue to wreak havoc. The least intriguing is Charity the Fortune Teller, who is just badly written and feels completely out of place in the story she takes up several pages of, simply to throw out hooks for future story arcs that Robinson already had planned.   In that too quick way, in a couple of issues we go from Jack wanting nothing to do with the Starman legacy to reluctantly getting involved to enjoying himself to admitting how much he enjoys it. He creates a "cool" costume unlike the lame 1940s one his dad and then David wore, though his idea of cool hasn't aged particularly well, and then goes through an incredibly compressed journey of discovery/grieving process where he thinks about what his brother meant to him as he fights the Mist's son. He even has his first big moral conundrum, as he kills the villain in order to get revenge for his brother in what should be an emotionally cathartic moment for the reader but just left me cold, and then insists he can never kill again... oh and the cops are all cool with this by the way, as he dictates terms to them, his father and himself about the way he's going to go about being their new superhero. It all feels very much like a brash, modern take on superheroes that was probably eye-opening at the time but feels contrived now. Especially when out of nowhere he accuses his father of wasting his talents as a scientist and forces him to agree to work on actual useful technological breakthroughs rather than toys like the Gravity Rod/Belt. It's like a meta-narrative on all the old tropes, a statement that THIS comic isn't going to be like all the rest. It wants to be subversive, but it only succeeds in part. The best being the confrontation with The Mist which is masterfully handled, only sadly to be almost immediately undercut by the swearing of vengeance by his daughter, who like Jack was a reluctant follower of her father and even let him go at one point, but now (rightfully) blames him for her brother's death. Even that is handled clumsily, with her straight up giving the exposition "You made me an accomplice. My mercy was Kyle's death!" - the Mist himself though, I don't want to overlook that, it's incredibly well done.  With the villain defeated, several future plotlines teased, Jack in his new costume, accepting of his status and having come to terms with like 5 different major psychological/emotional revelations... Ted cracks a joke about Jack having a tattoo and he replies with,"Daaaad!" and they have a laugh while David's body probably isn't even cold yet. A couple of extra pages tease the return of two other characters who have held the Starman mantle (and been published by DC under that title over the decades) to make it clear that Jack hasn't quite made the role his own just yet. It's an effective hook to continue reading, not that I wouldn't have anyway since I'm committed to at least attempting to read through the entire run (I'll try to cover more than 4-5 issues at a time though!). As it currently stands, it's a perfectly readable if unremarkable book but I don't want to overlook the time it comes from. This was 1994, and a lot of the issues I have with this first storyline are because comics as a format have figured this (mostly) out over the last 10-15 years. The amazing techniques pioneered by Citizen Kane have been seen thousands of times since, but it is still a great film. This series sure ain't Citizen Kane, but it's not Manos: Hands of Fate either. Robinson knows what he is doing, and this thing ran for 80 issues, was critically lauded and won plenty of awards. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Jan 30, 2018 |
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Jan 30, 2018 12:48
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More like SUCK rear end, amirite? I'm not going to break down each individual issue this time: I'll probably do two more parts reviewing the rest of the issues lumped together. It's not like it has a super intricate plot.
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Jan 31, 2018 03:04
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Oh God Mark Millar, he's such a flicking clint. Your review nails absolutely the sense of nastiness that pervades so much of his work. Was his run on The Authority this bad? Because I remember enjoying it and I feel bad about that now after all the rest of his output.
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Jan 31, 2018 03:38
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Since he was still gathering his reputation, yeah, it's there, but 1) It's somewhat toned down, and 2) He was just following the example set by Warren Ellis, in some ways: Ellis' initial run debuting the team had a villain unleashing hundreds of Superman-Lites to destroy cities solely to burn his organization's symbol onto the planet (because 'he just wanted to have fun'), an invasion from an alternate alien-run Earth where all of China had been turned into 'a rape camp', and finally a giant alien being dubbed 'God' because it's suggested it seeded life on Earth who tries to destroy the world because now that it's come back it finds its place infested with vermin, ie, us and all other forms of life. It's the final arc, Brave New World, where you start to REALLY see Millar's worst trait, which I generally call "Going Too Far". By the time of Kick-rear end, he'd gotten so popular that he could write stories that were nothing but Going Too Far, like Nemesis, or Kick-rear end here. Edit: Also it seems like they've retweaked the Master List again: it's now up to 694 entries. Cornwind Evil fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Jan 31, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 04:13
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Cornwind Evil posted:More like SUCK rear end, amirite? Also I genuinely enjoyed how the Kick-rear end movie just went down the list of Mark Millar Bullshit and not only removed them all, but replaced them with exactly the opposite thing happening every time.
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Jan 31, 2018 04:39
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Jerusalem posted:So what do I know about Starman? Not much at all, really. You are so lucky to be reading Starman these days. Originally when it was collected in trades, DC made a giant mess of things, leaving out important issues or putting them in the wrong order. The omnibuses are an enormous improvement in presentation. I don't want to throw around any nudge-nudge wink-wink poo poo about what's coming up, but I will say that the first arc is probably the weakest part of the run for pretty much all of the reasons that you gave, it rushes through the emotional beats way too fast. As for Mark Millar, the man peaked with Superman Adventures and it's all been downhill since.
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Jan 31, 2018 05:24
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J-ru suggested he's reading from Comixology which seems to mean he's buying the single issues, which is quite the investment for a dea gay internet forum, since they don't have the omnibu on there. Still, anything is better than DC's original, lovely trades. I just read through the series last year, and I have to agree with his complaints about pacing, but in the opposite way -I thought it was really slow throughout. I'm really tempted to sell off my hardcover omnibu since I could pick up a pretty penny for the set and I don't see myself ever rereading them. None of this is saying Starman is bad - I liked it a lot, but J-ru definitely caught it being mired in a weird period in comics, and it neither fits in 90s crazy bad bullshit nor in 2000s decompressed stuff.
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Jan 31, 2018 05:44
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It's something I'd always intended to read, and the price per issue on Comixology is pretty reasonable considering they'll be mine forever and I never have to worry about storage space for them/quality degradation (which is partly why I sold my physical comic collection a loooooong time ago). I think it actually works out a little cheaper for me in the long-run than buying the omnibuses, since I don't have to take shipping costs into account. I'm not buying the annuals though, they're like a dollar more expensive  CapnAndy posted:Also I genuinely enjoyed how the Kick-rear end movie just went down the list of Mark Millar Bullshit and not only removed them all, but replaced them with exactly the opposite thing happening every time. I really enjoyed the Kick-rear end film and got all excited to read the comic, till a friend told me about the differences and I noped the gently caress out of that one. I heard the follow-up was even worse, and that the sequel movie was pretty bad too.
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Jan 31, 2018 06:18
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It's a lot cheaper than buying the omnis since even at $2 an issue you're still paying less for the whole series than the going rate for Vol. 3 alone. I can't remember if the annuals are important or not, but I'm going to say they probably are? As much as I complained about the pacing, I don't think Robinson put in anything that wasn't at least somewhat connected with everything else. The omnis also include The Shade miniseries, though I guess it's up to you if you want to read that. It's good, but not vital, I don't think.
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Jan 31, 2018 06:39
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CapnAndy posted:I've always been of the opinion that at least a great deal of the cause of Mark Millar Bullshit is that he's never actually been to America apart from quick visits for cons or work meetings, which don't exactly expose you to the culture. Instead he's going off of what he sees on TV, which is a reduced and simplified pop culture version of reality that relies heavily on shorthand. He takes that and then makes comics of it, giving us a copy-of-a-copy effect because he's reducing and simplifying an already reduced and simplified version of not-quite-reality. Which explains a lot, really. TV uses dudes doing graffiti as shorthand for "there is crime here", therefore the graffiti dudes... are?.... crime, therefore they should be beaten up because superheroes punch crime, Millar knows this. I mean, to be fair to Millar here, I think Kick-rear end attempting to beat up graffiti guys is entirely meant to be a teenage idiot profiling some black guys who aren't doing anything wrong, because Superheroes Fight Crime and the protagonist's worldview is stunted and childish enough to think violence is an appropriate response to any crime at all. If anything it's portrayed as a weird fetishist who's spoiling for a fight going out and provoking violence. He doesn't want to resolve the situation, or really even help other people, he just wants to feel like a cool guy from a comic book punching hoodlums. I mean, I think Kick-rear end is needlessly nasty and cynical even apart from this. But suggesting that Millar's viewpoint is the protagonist's viewpoint is silly.
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Jan 31, 2018 11:25
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Hey, hi, I've been a bit busy and also trying to figure out a decent way of doing the reviews while saving as much cash as possible (I'm not American), so sorry for the radio silence. I think I'll buy trades in my native language (they mostly seem to follow Comixology's order and it's like three times cheaper) and use images from the Internet to illustrate the reviews, if that's okay.
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Jan 31, 2018 12:53
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Endless Mike posted:It's a lot cheaper than buying the omnis since even at $2 an issue you're still paying less for the whole series than the going rate for Vol. 3 alone. I can't remember if the annuals are important or not, but I'm going to say they probably are? As much as I complained about the pacing, I don't think Robinson put in anything that wasn't at least somewhat connected with everything else. The omnis also include The Shade miniseries, though I guess it's up to you if you want to read that. It's good, but not vital, I don't think. The first annual provides some useful backstory it explains what happened to the scifi hero Starman from the seventies, who turns up much later. Also, it's framed by distant future Shade telling the story in Space Opal City. I can't even remember what happened in the second annual so that says something about its significance in the storyline. As for the Shade miniseries, I think it's kind of important since without it Culp comes from nowhere in the final story arc. Reading in the original trades that lacked the set up made that part incredibly confusing. (Those aren't giant spoilers, BTW, I'm just assuming Jerusalem wants to go in completely blind.) Edit: Actually, thinking about it a bit, I think the parts of the Shade miniseries I was worried about are covered in the Shade's journals (which also were cut from the original collections) so even though I recommend reading it as part of the series, Jerusalem is probably fine going without. And Starman Annual 2 could have been titled "The Many Loves of Starmen". It does kick off one of the major story arcs, but in a minor way that skipping it won't miss anything significant. Random Stranger fucked around with this message at 13:32 on Jan 31, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 13:20
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Cornwind Evil posted:More like SUCK rear end, amirite? Thank you for reminding me of Stan Lee’s Who Wants To Be A Superhero. That show was so bizarre, even in the realm of reality tv. Are there any good critical analyses of that show? Cuz I think it would be interesting to rewatch with a critical eye.
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Jan 31, 2018 20:29
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Hey so I just updated the list and wanted to inform everyone that Escobarbarian, Dexie, Lightning Lord (twice), Skwirl, Doctor Spaceman, CarlCX, Sodomy Non Sapiens, enigmahfc, and hup are all in danger of failing their toxx, since they have a week or less to provide a trip report/review/whatever. Endless Mike is fine, due to having provided numerous check-ins already.
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Feb 1, 2018 17:59
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Sorry, I'm writing mine up. Life stuff got in the way and it took me longer then I thought it would to get through just 17 issues.
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Feb 1, 2018 18:52
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I'm in for writing a review of some random comics. No dupes, though.
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Feb 1, 2018 19:52
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Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #112: You'd Better Watch Out... Written by Peter David, Pencils by Mark Beachum, Cover Date: March 1986 So there's this thing in comics today called "writing for the trade." Those of us who haven't been in the comics game as long as I have (you lucky gits!) will probably assume that's just how comic books are written. In essence you put together your story to be read over the course of a spread of issues, typically six, which can be easily collected into a trade paperback and then sold again, this time to bookstores and libraries. And while there certainly can be an ongoing overplot that runs through several trades worth of stories if you can manage to stay on a book long enough, each trade is usually written such that you can get a mostly complete story with a beginning, middle, and an end. Ideally you'll be motivated to buy the next trade based on the merits of the one in your hand, but if you don't you'll have at least gotten a complete story out of it. It was not always thus in comics, however. For much of the Bronze Age of Comics, roughly the '70s and '80s, comics went with a more fluid structure. The idea was to hook readers and encourage them to keep buying the comics themselves rather than waiting for trades months later. As such there was often an A- B- C- plot structure to the things such that the A-plot would be ending, the B-plot would be carrying on, and the C-plot would be just getting started. In the next issue (or sometimes batch of issues), what was once the B-plot would become the A-plot and be resolved, the former C-plot would move forward and become the new B-plot, and a new C-plot would be introduced. Soap Operas have been using essentially the same formula for decades, and it's a good one because it makes it easy to hop on and stay on. You may not get what's ending in the A-plot, but the B-plot should be comprehensible as it moves forward, and you were there when the C-plot was introduced. Which is why it's so odd that someone nominated Spectacular Spider-Man #112 as a single issue entry on Every Story Ever. Because this issue really doesn't stand up on it's own without the supporting structure around it. Oh sure, you could read this one on its own after a fashion. Peter Parker's having a lovely Christmas, failing to deal with the feeling that everyone's abandoning him and that he has nowhere to go for Christmas. Of course, that's due to his usual Parker luck and self-imposed mopiness as he manages to inadvertently dodge every attempt by his friends and loved ones to invite him over for Christmas dinner. He gets the wrong idea from Aunt May and hangs up on her before she can invite him, The Black Cat's in the bath and can't be bothered to get up to answer his call, Robbie Robertson's about to invite Peter over but he gets distracted by a phone call and by the time he's turned around, Peter's moped his way out of the Bugle. And so and and so forth. Eventually, it's implied that the real Santa Claus helps Spider-Man redeem an impostor Santa Claus burglar, who hands a note to Spidey telling him to call his aunt, which he does in time to join May, Mary-Jane and her aunt for a Christmas dinner that helps Peter feel better. The end. When read like that, as indeed I did when I first slipped the issue out of its bag a couple of weeks ago, it reads as a bog-standard Christmas story that is only livened up by some stuff with Spider-Man catching street level criminals between scenes of Peter being depressed. The thing is, though, that when we pan back a bit we see that Peter's got pretty good reasons to be depressed. Almost immediately prior to this issue (in #107-110) was the "Death of Jean DeWolff" arc in which a long standing supporting character, police captain Jean DeWolff, was brutally gunned down and Spider-Man had torn through the city (with an assist from Daredevil in both superheroic and lawyerly guise) hunting down her killer. At the same time, one of the boarders at Aunt May's boarding house went all Bernie Goetz on some teenaged punks, shooting three of them in a subway car. Even further weakening Peter's faith in humanity is an otherwise unrelated incident in the first few pages of the book where-in Spider-Man catches a pursesnatcher only to have the woman who was robbed fall for the guy's sob story and ask the cop to let him go. After which, she notices said criminal had stolen her watch. By the time the gun toting mall Santa burglar, who manipulates the children who sit on his lap to help him rob their parents, Peter's pretty much hitting rock bottom. Which is when the real Santa shows up (though we only see his boots) to convince the criminal to turn himself in and to help Peter connect with his family again. Again, taken in isolation it's a pretty cliche story. Heck, even in context it's still fairly standard as these things go. But in context, this is the first issue to lighten things up for Peter after Jean's murder. Issue #111 which is between "Death of Jean DeWolfe" and this issue was a Secret Wars II tie-in, the less said about which the better. This is the first time in several months real-time for the readers that the story doesn't kick Pete in the crotch and instead ends on a mostly positive note. Yes, things have been bad. Yes, someone you were close to is dead. But you still have people who care about you. And that's not a terrible way to do a Christmas story, and an epilogue to a rough story for Spider-Man. That said, it's pretty janky to read this one on its own, and judged by itself (which it shouldn't be) it's not very good at all. jng2058 fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Feb 2, 2018 |
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Feb 2, 2018 03:44
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Lick! The! Whisk! posted:
I will need to request an extension on this. I got the trade in Comixology without hassle, but I am currently staying in Japan for a month and the connection here randomly blocks things like the Comixology reading page (I can access the main page just fine, but as soon as I try to read something, it says "Store is unavailable"). I will be back home on the 25th of February, so any date after that is fine.
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Feb 2, 2018 10:55
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